Why Devs should be allowed only small 32bit, memory limited machines...

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stemardue

Why Devs should be allowed only small 32bit, memory limited machines...

And after a while i'm here again, writing random thoughts on a random matter: software developing!

First off, i've recently re-taken on scenes rendering of people, characters etc.; i used to do that in Smith Micro Poser, but the new characters thrown out by daz3d have serious compatibility problems with poser, needing a 'translated' setup done by a scripted importer, that imo have several limits and bugs, so i decided to give a go to daz studio instead, the now free application developed by the same devs and distributors of the characters. Sure they provide both a 32 bit and a 64 bit of that, but in my case the only option is the 32bit one.

Now where is my point? Simple: it's totally pointless to distribute a 32bit app that will constantly crash due to memory limits. Thus the title of this blog. And i'm not only referring to daz studio...
As i clashed with the memory problem quite soon, i started to look for possible alternatives, and so discovered an open source renderer which looks like a pretty good solution (by the looks of the big gallery of renderings posted by users). That is luxrender, and i had a strong feeling that it's a preferred companion for Blender users.
Luxrender allowed me to render some scenes that made daz studio crash instantly, so part of my problems were solved, but soon enough i got to the top barrier of RAM usage also with luxrender... and the crashes came again.

I can understand - from an enterpreneurial point of view - that keeping the potential market as large as possible is paramount, so still 32bit is a must even in a growing 64bit-oriented PC-users population. But then 32bit limits need to be coped with, not just blatantly ignored, and i have the feeling that is the result of developers working on their projects on top-notch, virtually limitless machines. "Look, i have just finished a beautiful model of a rigged human with a complete set of materials and textures from skin down to single hair subsurface shaders!" Bull****! How can i even load that in memory when halfway through the process i have saturated all my RAM with gigantic texture maps? But they don't seem to care.

I am an old-school pc user... I played with 3ds when it was still called 3d studio max and it was a DOS application... and even then it was possible (with patience) to achieve great looking renderings. And your machine could only have 640Kb RAM... graphic cards with more than 128Kb ram were the top of the pops. No, i don't want to go back there, but come on.... how is it possible that a better solution can't be made available now, taking into account a 2Gb ram limit for those like me that are still confined in a 32bit environment?

That's why my title. And that in my opinion reflects also something wider and much more important... lack or loss of self discipline. If someone is given no limits, they will just go wild. As long as their product is working for them, that's ok. 32bit you say? Easy! Just replace some core dlls with the 32bit ones and we're go. No, people. That's beotic and unfair.

*sigh* ok i'm done ranting for now... that won't change anything, but at least i let off some steam

Comments

they propably just want to cater to the generation of customers that demand 4096 textures on everything (eyes and leafes in skyrim, etc), otherwise its "not detailed enough" for them...
the renderer also doesnt look very good to me, so they propably want to cover up the fake look with higggghhrezz textures(tm)